We stumbled upon a rather intriguing post over at PCPerspective regarding recently released AMD HD 6990M performance slides as it appears that HD 6990M is not that much faster than the GTX 580M.

In case you missed it, the recently introduced AMD Radeon HD 6990M is based on Barts XT architecture and has nothing to do with its desktop dual-GPU counterpart. It is a single GPU solution that has 1120 stream processors, GPU clock set at 715MHz and up to 1.6TFlops of computing power. The GPU is paired with 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 900MHz which is enough for over 115GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Apparently, AMD contacted pcper.com to let them know that benchmark results need to be changed and that new one show that the difference between the HD 6990M and the HD 6970M, and the difference between Radeon HD 6990M and GTX 580M is not that high. You can check out the article here.

After asking around, our birdies have told us that it appear that AMD was using a desktop configuration based on the HD 6870 card clocked at the same clocks as the HD 6990M for those slides and have expected the results to be identical, but unfortunately they aren't. This time around AMD's inteligence service didn't do its homework well.

The bottom line is that the HD 6990M is still faster than the GTX 580M and it all comes down to the price, which is, by the way, still on AMD's side. We checked out some prices and AMD's HD 6990M is around US $300 cheaper than the GTX 580M at least that's what we have seen on the Origin site and its EON17-S notebook and Alienware site and its M17x notebook.

So this round still goes to AMD. Of course, we are still waiting to see the "correct" slides that AMD is talking about.

Previously seen and introduced at Computex in Taipei, the Powercolor Radeon HD 6870 X2 graphics card has now been officially announced. Packing two 40nm Barts XT GPUs sharing the same PCB, the new HD 6870 X2 comes with a custom dual slot cooler, 2GB of GDDR5 memory and a total of 2240 Stream Processors.

As noted, the new card packs a total of 2240 Stream Processors, or 1120 per GPU and works at 900MHz for each GPU and 4200MHz for a total of 2GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a dual 256-bit memory interface. Since we are talking about a custom card, Powercolor used a "Platinum Power Kit" on the PCB that includes 13-phase VRM, ferrite Core Chokes and DrMos.

The cooler that will keep the temps of both GPUs uses two slots and features six heatpipes with Heatpipe Direct Touch technology as well as two fans to keep the card as cool as possible. The card needs two 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors and features two DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 1.4 and two DVI outputs.

The latest info was that it should be priced at around US $449 and should end up about 15 percent faster than the GTX 580.

After treating us to a sneak preview of its new Radeon HD 6870 Eyefinity 6 Edition graphics card, Powercolor has now officially announced it.

The specs are pretty much what you would expect from the HD 6870 card so you are looking at a Barts XT GPU with 1120 Stream processors. The GPU ticks at 900MHz while the 2GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with 256-bit memory interface works at 4200MHz. It is good that Powercolor decided to strap it with additional 1GB of memory due to the fact that higher resolutions usually need more memory. The I/O panel offers six mini DisplayPort outputs.

The card is cooled by Powercolor's dual-slot non-reference cooler with a central fan and the card needs two PCI-Express 6-pin connectors. The price or the availability date haven't been announced but we are sure that the card will show up in retail/e-tail pretty soon.

MSI has rolled out yet another non-reference card that will be a part of its Radeon HD 6000 series lineup, the MSI R6870 Hawk. Featuring a factory overclocked Barts XT GPU, the R6870 Hawk also comes with MSI's Twin Frozr III cooler paired up with new Propeller Blade fans.

The new R6870 Hawk is anything but reference as it features an improved 8+2-phase design for some additional overclocking, MSI's Military Class II components including Super Ferrite Chokes, Hi-C CAPs, Solid Capacitors, APS (Active Phase Switching) technology for phase control, voltage check points and OCP (Over Current Protection) unlocker for some extreme overclocking adventures.

Specs wise, the card still features 1120 stream processors and 1GB of GDDR5 memory. MSI went with a slight factory overclock to 930MHz for the GPU and 4200MHz for memory but due to the spec list we are quite sure that the card can go even higher. It features two DVI, HDMI and two mini DisplayPort outputs.

The MSI Twin Frozr III cooler has five heatpipes (two 8mm ones), nickel-plated copper base and a rather large heatsink that is cooled by two 80mm fans with a new Propeller Blade design. According to MSI, the cooler should be up to 7dB quieter, 21 degrees cooler, with up to 20 percent more airflow thanks to the fan-blade design. Another interesting feature is the switch that changes the fan mode from Performance to Silent and vice versa.

The new R6870 Hawk is already listed at our price search engine and it can be found for as low as €218,64. You can check it out here.

PowerColor HD 6870 PCS+ is a special version of Radeon HD 6870 card that comes factory overclocked and strapped with special cooling.

Just a reminder – at the end of October 2010, AMD launched two new graphics cards from its Northern Islands family Radeon HD 6870 and HD 6850 cards. Radeon HD 6870 beats the Radeon HD 5850 but it is slower than Radeon HD 5870.

PowerColor overclocked it HD 6870 PCS+ card as you can see from the GPUZ screenshot.

The Barts XT, known as the HD 6870 card, has 14 SIMDs, with 80 Stream Processor per SIMD (total of 1120 Stream Processors) and 56 texture units (TMUs). As noted it has a 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface and comes with 32 Raster Operation Processors (ROPs). The fully enabled Barts, or the Barts XT, has 2TFLOPS of computational power. The reference Barts XT GPU ended up clocked at 900MHz for the GPU and 4200MHz for 1GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a 256-bit memory interface.

The HD 6870 PCS+ cooling is dual slot and the card is 24cm long. Although the card’s PCB is as long as the reference one, reference card’s cooler makes the card 7mm longer.

The fan is 9cm in diameter and is connected to the 3-pin connector. Fan speed regulation can be performed via the Catalyst Overdrive or any other tool you may prefer.

The I/O panel features two DisplayPort 1.2 connectors, HDMI 1.4a and two DVI connectors (one of them is single-link with maximum resolution of 1920x1200).

Unlike the Radeon HD 5850, Radeon HD 6870 comes with only one CrossFire connector. This means that you can only use two cards in 2-way CrossFire.

Radeon HD 6870 consumes 151W at max so it will require two power connectors.

PowerColor included all the necessary equipment, including the DVI-to-VGA adapter and mini-DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort converter; the card already comes with a standard HDMI out.

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Our test HD 6870 PCS+ came with a “Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2” voucher. Unfortunately, this gift is aimed only at specific regions, so you might want to check with your retailer whether yours is included

HD 6870’s reference clocks are 900MHz for the GPU and 1050MHz for the memory, and our today’s PowerColor cards clocks are 940MHz for the GPU and 1100MHz for the memory. We relied on MSI’s Afterburner for our overclocking. We managed to hit 985MHz for the GPU but only after we increased the voltage.

We managed to hit 960MHz for the GPU and 1100MHz for the memory by running the card on factory voltage and with the fan in AUTO mode, it resulted in additional 4% better results in Aliens vs. Predator. Overclocking to 985MHz GPU provided another 2% boost to results.

Thermals and Noise

PowerColor HD 6870 PCS+ didn’t exceed 86°C during our tests. The cooler was almost inaudible in idle operation (42°C). Although PowerColor’s card runs a few °C higher than the reference card, you’re still in the safe zone. On the other hand, the cooler wasn’t loud, not even in intensive GPU operation. Naturally, you can always turn to Catalyst Overdrive and meddle a bit to find your preferred temperature-noise ratio.

Power Consumption

HD 6870 consumes 19W in idle and 151W during operation whereas the 6850 draws 19W when idle and 127W during operation.

We measured our entire rig's consumption after stressing the graphics with FurMark. The tests show that HD 6870’s consumption is similar to the GTX 460 1GB. PowerColor HD 6870 PCS+ consumes about 15W more that the reference card.

PowerColor HD 6870 PCS+ is a factory overclocked card that comes with special cooling. The card is currently priced about €208 in the EU, which is about €10 higher than PowerColor’s reference HD 6870.

HD 6870 PCS+ performs great and will be perfect for gamers who play at 1920x1080. However, that’s not to say that the card will not handle 2560x1600.

The factory overclock will provide 2-4% better results compared to the reference card. The cooler is efficient and very quiet in idle. When the card is pushed, you will hear the cooler run but we still considered it to be quiet.

PowerColor will bundle Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 but only in some regions. Naturally, the HD 6870 PCS+ is a good deal even without the game. So let’s recap: quiet and efficient cooling coupled with increased performance and all that at only €10 more than reference card. What’s there not to recommend?

Let us give you some more details on the soon-to-launch Radeon HD 6870 card. We already talked about the 900MHz core clock speed and 1120 stream processors as well as 1GB GDDR5 memory with a 256-bit bus and 4200 MHz memory clock.

We can tell you that the TDP is 151W at load and 19W at idle. The card still needs two dual 6-pin power connectors as it’s just over the magical 150W mark. AMD wanted to be sure that these cards will work on lousier power supplies and didn’t want to take any risks.

The Radeon HD 6870 offers HDMI output as well as two mini DisplayPorts capable of supporting 1.2 devices and two DVIs. The card is dual slot and will end up with some retail partner sticker.

AMD has loosened the leash on pre-briefed press and partners and told them that they can talk about the HD 6800 series slots, ports and what the card looks like.

We will share the 3Dmark Vantage score of the Radeon HD 6870 and the magical number is 7500 at extreme quality, give or take a few points. This is the score on a 3.2GHz clocked Core i7 965 XE. We have also learned that with high quality textures the card scores close to 7400, while with adaptive quality settings you score a bit higher than 7500.

The same card on high scores 11000 while at performance settings you can get 16500. With a six-core CPU you can probably score a few more points but we doubt that people with six core Intel CPUs will go for mainstream ATI card. We can see some AMD six core adopters doing that and many, who can afford would like two of these cards.

Radeon HD 5870 scores 9000 at extreme settings while HD 5850 scores 7200, and Nvidia’s non overclocked Geforce GTX 460 provides some 7000. Vantage is just one of the numbers worth taking into consideration, but in games Radeon HD 6870 scores close or better to Radeon HD 5850 and loses from Radeon HD 5870.

AMD has confirmed that it will introduce Barts-based HD 6800 series cards on Friday, so basically it has just confirmed what we've been saying for weeks. Basically, we're just gloating.

The company has also released the first official photos of the HD 6870 and HD 6850. No surprises here either, we've already seen them.

We're expecting to see the first listings and proper benchmarks over the next couple of days, but the HD 6800 series already looks like a winner. Mind you, considering what it's up against, this is hardly a surprise.

Barts PRO and Barts XT are Radeon HD 6850 and Radeon HD 6870, respectively, and they are supposed to launch exactly one week from now - on Friday the 22nd. But you should all know this by now.

Barts will have a go versus Geforce GTX 460 1GB and 768MB and while they should win this fight, everything seems to indicate that they will be more expensive. They are being positioned as the products that are faster than Radeon HD 5770 and 5750 but slower than Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850.

Cayman replaces Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850 and we are hearing that Cayman XT is going to end up branded as Radeon HD 6970 while Cayman PRO gets the AMD Radeon HD 6950 brand.

Launch date is in the last week of November, if all goes well of course.

The same set of slides revealed some fresh information regarding the specifications of both Barts and Cayman GPUs. The new specs reveal the difference between the XT and Pro models for both GPUs. The new detail is that Cayman XT will use 6Gbps GDDR5 chips, something that will surely bring a significant performance boost.

Barts XT and Pro will both feature 1GB of GDDR5 5Gbps memory, but will have a different max TDP. The new info is that Barts Pro will actually need a single 6-pin PCI-E connector and will have a TDP of below 150W while the XT version will need two of them and will end up with a TDP of over 150W.

Similar situation is with Cayman GPUs, as the Pro version will end up with 5Gbps memory, TDP of under 225W and will need two 6-pin PCI-E connectors. Cayman XT will feature one 6-pin and one 8-pin PCI-E connector and will have a TDP of below 300W.